A Live Record by Camel (Album, Symphonic Prog): Reviews, Ratings, Credits, Song list - Rate Your Music
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A Live Record
By Camel
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ArtistCamel
TypeAlbum
ReleasedApril 1978
RecordedOctober 1974 - October 1977
RYM Rating 3.99 / 5.00.5 from 983 ratings
Ranked#1,542 overall, #184 for live
Genres
Descriptors
melodic, progressive, male vocalist, instrumental
Language English

Track listing

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Previous in discography: Canterbury
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Pressure Points: Live in Concert
Next in discography: Canterbury

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Issues

12 Issues

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12 Issues

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Credits

Credits

29 Reviews

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4.00 stars
While expanded editions are always nice, I actually prefer the more directed original version of this album. The additions on side 1 don't do as much for me as what was originally there. Cool to hear, but not required.

Ostensibly, this can act as a 'greatest hits' for the band. The material covered is fantastic and the sound quality is top-notch. My highlights from side one are certainly "Song Within a Song," and "Lunarsea." "Never Let Go" is also fantastic on this album and really shows the band at some of their most rocking.

The remainder of the (unexpanded) album is a version of the entirety of "The Snowgoose" featuring the London Symphony Orchestra. While I'm not as taken with the album is most are, I find it a little too meandery and much prefer the albums right before and after, it's a stellar representation and one that I actually prefer over the original offerings.

Generally speaking I find this album to be a bit more of a punchier and jazz-rockier representation of the band in a really positive way. If you were brand new to the group and didn't want to just pick an album to start from (though it's pretty easy to suggest to just go from the top with Camel), then I would say this album should tell you need to know.
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 4.00 stars
yes
if you want the best parts of camel this live album really has it all, maybe down the line il re listen to the album and give it 4.5
Published
4.50 stars
Like many live albums, A Live Record represents several things.

It's a summing-up of the band's career to date. It's a de facto best-of record, featuring excellent live versions of the best material the band had produced so far. In particular, the expanded CD version of the album, which adds seven more tracks (some had been excluded from the LP release as they had already appeared on the recent studio album Rain Dances), is kind of the best Camel album by default, featuring the best material from their first five albums, and their third album in its entirety.

As with several other prog groups (cf Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Live in Concert With the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Caravan & The New Symphonia, Live at Carnegie Hall), it's an excuse to perform and record with an orchestra. The orchestra-backed version of "The Snow Goose" here works pretty well, though it doesn't blow the band-only studio version- which already features orchestral parts- out of the water. It is, at least, not worse than the studio version, and not an embarrassing boondoggle like Deep Purple's outing.

It also- in common with some other double lives- not just sums up the band's career to date, but serves as a milestone marking the end of an era- an oddly recurring thing. As with On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Playing the Fool, and Seconds Out, A Live Record marks the end of its band's first and best-loved period, before a pivot to shorter songs and poppier songwriting.

It's also just a really good record.
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â–¼ 3.50 stars
  • 2.50 stars A1 Never Let Go
  • 3.00 stars A2 Song Within a Song
  • 3.50 stars A3 Lunar Sea
  • 4.50 stars B1 Skylines
  • 4.50 stars B2 Ligging at Louis'
  • 4.00 stars B3 Lady Fantasy
  • 4.00 stars C1 The Great Marsh
  • 4.00 stars C2 Rhayader
  • 4.50 stars C3 Rhayader Goes to Town
  • 4.00 stars C4 Sanctuary
  • 4.00 stars C5 Fritha
  • 4.50 stars C6 The Snow Goose
  • 4.00 stars C7 Friendship
  • 4.00 stars C8 Migration
  • 4.50 stars C9 Rhayader Alone
  • 4.00 stars D1 Flight of the Snow Goose
  • 4.50 stars D2 Preparation
  • 4.50 stars D3 Dunkirk
  • 4.00 stars D4 Epitaph
  • 4.00 stars D5 Fritha Alone
  • 4.00 stars D6 La princesse perdue
  • 4.00 stars D7 The Great Marsh
The two-record set "A Live Record", released in April 1978, is Camel's first live album, featuring recordings from 1974-1977. The first record contains six tracks - the first three recordings are from October 1977 ("Never Let Go" recorded at Hammersmith Odeon , "Lunar Sea" - Colston Hall and "Skylines" - Leeds University) and one from September of the same year ("Song Within a Song" - Hammersmith Odeon), recorded from a tour promoting "Rain Dances" with Richard Sinclair and Mel Collins. The last two - from October 1974 - was recorded at Marquee and are the oldest recordings in the set. The second record, on the other hand, is nothing more than a concert version of "The Snow Goose" with the London Symphony Orchestra, recorded in October 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall.

First, these recordings from 1977 - "Never Let Go", "Song Within A Song" and "Lunar Sea". The former two sung by Richard Sinclair (originally sung by Bardens and Ferguson, respectively) are enhanced by saxophone solos by Mel Collins. While "Song Within A Song" and "Lunar Sea" were not that different from the studio versions, "Never Let Go" changed quite drastically. From a great, dynamic folk-rock ballad, the song here became jazz-rock because of drummer Andy Ward's playing, and instead of a flute solo, there were keyboard, saxophone, bass and guitar showdowns. Unfortunately, this arrangement change made the song lose much of its charm and thus became too pretentious. I will not hide - I don't like this version. Also, while I appreciate Mel Collins' playing and don't belittle his talent, those saxophone solos somehow do not fit these tracks, at least to me. And then there's "Skylines" - this composition, too, has not changed in arrangement, compared to the studio version, except for the extended ending, with a rather intriguing atmosphere created by the synthesizer and guitar solo. A very successful version. Well, and the oldest recordings from 1974 - "Lady Fantasy" was extended by 2 minutes compared to the studio version, and the final section was sung not by Bardens, but by Latimer. On the other hand, "Ligging at Louis'" by Bardens - which didn't make it onto any of the band's studio albums - has something of the climate of the debut album, featuring interesting keyboard and guitar displays.

Finally, the concert version of "The Snow Goose". Again, the repertoire did not differ significantly from the studio version, except for the presence of an orchestra - the exception being "Migration" where the middle section of this song was extended with a new musical motif along with a keyboard solo, absent from the studio album. If I were to insist on it, however, in "Preparation" - compared to its studio counterpart - is quite dark and psychedelic, making it more impressive. Due to the participation of the orchestra, the concert version sounds quite rich (e.g. "Rhayader Goes To Town," "Dunkirk" and "La Princesse Perdue"). Thus, the concert version of "The Snow Goose" can be counted as a success.

To sum up - "A Live Record" is definitely not Camel's best concert album. A bit much to be desired is the choice of recordings and rather misplaced arrangements (especially in the unfortunate "Never Let Go"). Fortunately, the 2002 remastered version, there were additional recordings, which partially made up for this oversight.

In the remastered version, the first disc additionally features "First Light", "Metrognome", "Unevensong", "Rain Dances", recorded at Colston Hall in October 1977, and "Chord Change" at Hammersmith Odeon in April 1976. On the second - "The White Rider" and "Another Night", also recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in April 1976, and a speech by Peter Bardens, announcing the performance of "The Snow Goose". All of these bonus recordings were no different from the studio versions.

First record - 3.5/5
Second record - 4/5
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 3.50 stars
Listening to this I kept wondering why it was so long, now I see - originally a three record set. Very good as well although much as I enjoyed _The Snow Goose_ pieces (better then the original record imo) I was really getting pretty comfortable with the first section, especially "Never Let Go", "Lady Fantasy" and the funky "Liggin at Louis'". I wouldn't call this all the Camel you need, but it's still one of their best.
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4.50 stars
Straight from the Camel's (shoot me for even saying that...) Mouth, A Live Album is indeed a live retrospective of the groups first four albums, in my opinion of which, were some of the best prog albums of the mid 70's. While personally I feel The Snow Goose really deserves its own live album instead of being lumped in with random hits from their other records, its still a very nice treat and played just as well as anyone would have expected. If theres is any real flaw is I wish they had chosen One of These Days Ill Get an Early Night, instead of Skylines from Raindances, sadly that is the only song worth a damn off that album and I would love to hear it in all its disco-esque glory. Still this has the best version of Never Let Go the band ever recorded, I just wish there was at least another disc, ala Yessongs for songs like The White Rider suit, Earthrise, Chord Change and hell Homage to the God of Light. (Im not saying this a major blight on the record, its just personally what I would love to see.)

What can I say? A masterful release, If you love these severely underrated Canterbury Prog stars I highly recommend picking this one up. Another album down for my Live album binge.
Published
â–¼ 4.00 stars
  • 4.00 stars A1 Never Let Go
  • 4.00 stars A2 Song Within a Song
  • 4.50 stars A3 Lunar Sea
  • 4.00 stars B1 Skylines
  • 4.00 stars B2 Ligging at Louis'
  • 4.50 stars B3 Lady Fantasy
  • 4.00 stars C1 The Great Marsh
  • 4.00 stars C2 Rhayader
  • 4.00 stars C3 Rhayader Goes to Town
  • 4.00 stars C4 Sanctuary
  • 4.00 stars C5 Fritha
  • 4.00 stars C6 The Snow Goose
  • 4.00 stars C7 Friendship
  • 4.00 stars C8 Migration
  • 4.00 stars C9 Rhayader Alone
  • 4.00 stars D1 Flight of the Snow Goose
  • 4.00 stars D2 Preparation
  • 4.00 stars D3 Dunkirk
  • 4.00 stars D4 Epitaph
  • 4.00 stars D5 Fritha Alone
  • 4.00 stars D6 La princesse perdue
  • 4.00 stars D7 The Great Marsh
The first half of this album is killer, with some great guitar work and great songs, but I really didn't need the entire second half which was the entire Snow Goose album. I just felt like that dragged the album out twice as long than it needed to be. Snow Goose just works better as a studio album anyways, its kind of like how on the Deluxe edition of the Who Live they include the entire Tommy album as the second disc, which just drags the album out. Still, for the first half alone, this is worth it for any Camel fan, some great live versions of already great songs. Still the first half itself isn't flawless either, as some have pointed out, the Rain Dances songs aren't really that great, but they are tolerable.
Published
4.50 stars
4 stars Disc 1
4.5 stars Disc 2

Some of the Rain Dances songs are quite forgettable (Ligging at Louis, Rain Dances). But well constructed and even better played Skylines and Unevensong surely make up for those.
As much as the first disc seems a bit disjointed (maybe due to the order of the tracks), the highs are VERY high, and the lows are not-so-low, making it a very pleasant experience even to people who are not familiar with Camel's work, this being the first full record I've listened to (heard bits of Moonmadness and The Snow Goose before and loved both of them).

The second disc is where the REAL fun is at. Amazing rendition of The Snow Goose album, with brilliant orchestral arrangement. Not a single down point here. The White Rider and Another Night show up in extremely well played and carefully arranged versions that do not slow down the pace The Snow Goose built right before it.

If you like prog rock, this is not to be missed.
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Catalog

Ratings: 983
Cataloged: 933
Track rating sets:Track ratings: 31
Rating distribution
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21 May 2024
Masphael  5.00 stars
9 May 2024
elahnib  4.00 stars
2 May 2024
flames13  4.00 stars Good (8/10)
26 Apr 2024
rvi  4.00 stars great
18 Apr 2024
alk0 Digital4.00 stars very good
12 Apr 2024
stefanovandergraaf  4.50 stars
30 Mar 2024
HGBDC Digital3.00 stars Bon
28 Mar 2024
iibrvkenlxng  4.00 stars
25 Mar 2024
KnifeWoundGirl  2.50 stars Agartha
13 Mar 2024
Musical Vinyl4.00 stars
4 Mar 2024
SabbathCrimsonveli Vinyl4.00 stars Great!!
28 Feb 2024
fearon  3.00 stars ⬞
27 Feb 2024
Zurheide  3.50 stars
16 Feb 2024
Praemisit  4.00 stars Me gustan un poquito demasiado
15 Feb 2024
Luke_Skytalker  4.00 stars Very Good
Cover art for A Live Record by Camel
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Previous in discography: Canterbury
Canterbury
Pressure Points: Live in Concert
Next in discography: Canterbury
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Track listing

Credits

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Contributions

Contributors to this release: albert22, alabaster, Egbert1971, Maribor, Featus, googoogjoob42, mizuki, sunhillow, kermit, PC_Music
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